How To Photograph The Pleiades (M45) Star Cluster

The Pleiades star cluster (also known as the Seven Sisters or M45) is one of the best astrophotography targets for every beginner astrophotographer. It’s one of the easiest targets to locate thanks to its size and brightness – you can see it on your DSLR’s live screen. You can capture the M45 with a wide range of lenses – wide, standard, telephoto, and telescopes. In this tutorial, you will learn how to photograph the Pleiades star cluster with a DSLR or a mirrorless camera.

Pleiades fact sheet

How to find the Pleiades on the night sky

The Pleiades is an open star cluster located in the constellation Taurus. It’s so bright that you can see it with your naked eyes, even from the center of a light-polluted city. M45 is a Fall-Winter astrophotography target on the Northern Hemisphere, so prepare yourself with warm clothes when going to shoot it.

Finding the Pleiades on the night sky is really simple. First, locate the Orion constellation. Then go upper-right, and voila – that little cloud-like structure, best seen when not looking directly on it, it’s the M45!

Pleiades location on the sky. It’s easiest to first find the Orion, and then go with the direction pointed by the Orion’s Belt up-right.

Camera settings for photographing the Pleiades

Your shutter speed and ISO depends mostly on two things:

Your lens aperture

If you track with an equatorial mount or not

Non-tracking

If you use a fast wide-angle lens on a stationary tripod without tracking, start with these settings:

Aperture

Wide-open (f/2 or f/2.8)

Time

30 seconds

ISO

3200 or more

If stars on your picture are not pinpoint (but rather so-called star trailed), then reduce the exposure time by a few seconds and set higher ISO. If you are happy with the result, shoot at least 20 total exposures, and stack them to reduce noise and increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Then, post-process it as a regular RGB astro-image.

Tracking

If you have access to an equatorial mount, then definitely make use of it! Start with those settings, and read below how to tune them:

Aperture

Wide-open

Time

120 seconds

ISO

800 or more

Those settings depend heavily on your glass aperture and focal length. Generally, the Pleiades is a very bright object and can be easily overexposed. In case of that, lower your exposure time and compensate with ISO. Experiment until you have a satisfying effect, then capture 20-30 exposures, stack them, and process as usual.

My progress on photographing the Pleiades

Pleiades with a wide-angle lens, untracked

The very first time I captured the Seven Sisters, it was by accident. Those times I wasn’t even familiar with the night sky, so I was shooting randomly just for the sake of experimenting with astrophotography and exploring the night sky. Here’s my first encounter with the Pleiades in February 2018.

Wide-field view on the Pleiades star cluster in a forest at Winter. My first ever picture of the Seven Sisters, also one of my first astrophotography pictures in general. I captured it as several exposures stacked later together with Fuji X-T20 camera and Rokinon/Samyang 12mm f/2 lens without tracking. Orion constellation and nebula in the bottom-left.

Can you spot the Pleiades here? Yep, that blue blob on the center-right is our star cluster.

Advancing to a telephoto lens and tracking

Very soon after I acquired an equatorial mount (Fornax Lightrack II) and a telephoto lens (Rokinon/Samyang 135mm f/2). Boy, it was an upgrade! A lot longer exposures, more zoom on the objects (resulting in higher image resolution, thus more detail), and no more star-trails (well, a lot less at least). Pleiades star cluster is a perfect target for a telephoto lens; sadly I bought mine around March, so it was just after the season for shooting Subaru. But a few months later, Pleiades began to appear low on the horizon in the early morning.

My first try on the Pleiades with a telephoto lens. Poor tracking and a lot of signal cut in post-processing due to the overwhelming light pollution and past inability to properly remove it in post-processing.

My second try on the M45, this time with proper tracking and better conditions (object higher in the sky). Also, first time using calibration frames (darks and flats). Not ideal picture, but better than previous.

The astrophotography setup I made pictures above. Fornax Lightrack II, Fuji X-T20, Rokinon/Samyang 135mm f/2.0, Manfrotto 475B, and a few more accessories.

Finally with a telescope

Using a telescope (even a small one) is the best way to photograph the Pleiades. Make sure to equip your scope with a field flattener and some filter to block the light pollution if you live in a polluted area.

The first iteration of post-processing – image stacked in Starry Sky Stacker and finished in Affinity Photo. At the moment of processing, I wasn’t using PixInsight to remove gradients yet.

The same data as the picture above, re-processed in PixInsight. I calibrated it to preserve some more natural colors. Also, I used a few fantastic tools in PixInsight to reduce light pollution gradients before further processing. It results in better contrast.

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About Author

Hey there! I'm Paweł, an astrophotographer from Poland and author of this site. I started my astrophotography adventure in 2017 and never looked back. On Astro Photons I share what I've learned so far. Read More…